Texans fans shouldn't bank on fast fix

1of2Running back Arian Foster, who scored a mere two touchdowns in a season cut short by a back injury, was among the Texans players cleaning out their lockers on Monday, a day after the team suffered its 14th consecutive loss, 16-10 at Tennessee, to close the book on a 2-14 campaign.Photo: Karen Warren, Staff

2of2Getting running back Arian Foster (23) and linebacker Brian Cushing back from injuries next season could go a long way to restoring the Texans' core, but there are no guarantees.Photo: Karen Warren, Staff

It is always darkest just before dawn.

It had to be a romanticist or a poet who said that. It wasn't a scientist.

After the darkest hour, it becomes less dark, gradually becoming lighter until dawn.

Texans owner Bob McNair knows that. But perhaps when he fired Gary Kubiak, he was trying to convince himself or prospective coaching candidates or fans that it soon will be sunrise again in Houston.

"We don't have to do a lot to get us back on track,'' McNair said. "This is not a long-term rebuilding process. We've still got a good core group of players that can make for an outstanding team.''

This is also the man who said before the season the Texans would be his best team ever and predicted they would go deep into the playoffs.

"Our goal is to win the Super Bowl, not just be there,'' he said.

How did that work out?

McNair is not entirely wrong. The Texans do have a good core group of players. They have solid management, starting with McNair. They will fix the franchise. But it won't be a quick fix.

After the owner and the general manager, the two most important people in the organization are the head coach and the quarterback. The Texans don't have a head coach. Nor do they have a proven quarterback.

Penn State's Bill O'Brien has emerged as the overwhelming favorite to coach the team. He is a man of high character, a Bill Belichick disciple, well-considered for his work with quarterbacks. He seems to be the right man at the right time for the Texans. But that is always the case when a team hires a coach. Sometimes it works out. Often it doesn't. Ask the Cleveland Browns.

The QB quandary

Finding the right quarterback is also an inexact science.

If you acquire a veteran, it's because another team believed it could find a better one. If you draft one, he's probably not ready to play. That is not always the case, but Andrew Luck, Russell Wilson and Robert Griffin III were aberrations in 2012, rookies who led their teams to the playoffs. There is no guarantee Teddy Bridgewater, Johnny Manziel or Blake Bortles could do the same in 2014.

The Texans have been compared to the Kansas City Chiefs, who, after changing their coach and quarterback, improved from 2-14 in 2012 to 11-5. But Kansas City had more core talent returning this season (six Pro Bowl players) than the Texans do next season (two Pro Bowl players) and added several free agents to play complementary roles, a successful NFL head coach in Andy Reid, and an experienced, low-maintenance quarterback in Alex Smith.

The Texans are more comparable to the Philadelphia Eagles, who changed head coaches, learned an entirely new system and had to rely on a serviceable quarterback after an injury to Michael Vick but, because of core talent, improved from 4-12 to 10-6 and won a weak division.

One thing the Chiefs and Eagles have in common is an exceptional running back, Jamaal Charles in Kansas City and LeSean McCoy in Philadelphia.

The Texans have one in Arian Foster, but he will be 28 when next season begins and is recuperating from back surgery. And although he says football remains his first priority, there are questions about whether his head is more in Hollywood - his first movie, "Draft Day,'' premieres in April - than Houston.

The Texans' defensive leader, linebacker Brian Cushing, has no such distractions but is recuperating from his second major knee injury in two seasons.

Foster and Cushing are two essential players in McNair's core group of talent. If they return at a high level, if there are no other serious injuries, if the choice of a head coach is the right one, if the Texans draft wisely, and if they find a quarterback, it's true that, with the help of a weak schedule, they could be a playoff contender. It's more likely they will finish something like 7-9 or 9-7.

Trend started in '12

They are not the 13-5 team, including the playoffs, of 2012. We knew that by the end of 2012, when they lost four of their last six games. Since their 11-1 start last season, they are 4-18.

McNair sounded the warning after last season when he said the Texans had to develop more mental toughness. He seemed confident they had done so after they came from eight points behind with less than five minutes remaining - when some fans at Reliant Stadium began to file out and others remained to boo - to beat Tennessee in overtime in the second game.

But others knew better. That would be their last victory.

"Obviously, you're not going to get away with that in this league,'' Kubiak said afterward.

Randy Harvey returned to his native Texas, starting a new assignment as a featured sports columnist on at the Houston Chronicle, in July 2012 after 30 years with the Los Angeles Times. He became sports editor in May 2015 and retired in March 2018.

His first beat in L.A. was to cover the Showtime Lakers with Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. After tha 1984 Summer Olympics, he covered primarily international sports, including 15 Summer and Winter Games and four soccer World Cups.

On the domestic front, he also has covered 12 Super Bowls. Randy moved into management as senior assistant sports editor in 2000, left in 2004 as assistant managing editor/sports for the Baltimore Sun and returned to the LA Times in 2006 as sports editor. He spent three years from 2009 to 2012 as associate editor before deciding to return to writing sports.

Randy is a 1973 graduate of The University of Texas at Austin and has worked at newspapers in the state in Tyler, Austin and Dallas. He also has worked for the Chicago Sun-Times and the New York Daily News.

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